Bourne Frees a Memory But Freezes When Action Is Needed: A Step Down from The Bourne Legacy
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The Bourne Betrayal is a bloated book with one significant plot development surprise in it. Be careful you don't find a spoiler with that surprise described in it or you will find this book to be very boring from beginning to end as the results you expect occur.
Under Deputy Director Martin Lindros, Central Intelligence has been reforming itself to become more effective in combating terrorists. But not everyone is happy about that progress, including the terrorists. Based on a lead that suggests a risk of nuclear terror, Lindros returns to the field. Meanwhile everyone else wants to play politics to advance their own self interests. Jason Bourne is naturally concerned because Lindros is his only friendly ally.
Meanwhile, Bourne is struggling with recurring images of a young woman dying in his arms that he associates with the death of his wife. What's worse than amnesia?: being tortured by the thought that he may bear enormous guilt for the deaths of others. How can he clear his mind? The methods he tries have unexpected consequences.
Soon, Bourne is brought into the search for the terrorist threat . . . but he's curiously ineffective at what he does. He stumbles as he travels a road into lots of hostile territory to stop the threat. Naturally, each stop on the road is filled with violent confrontations that often wound Bourne.
If you are a Lustbader fan, you'll find this book hews closer to the Lustbader type of action thriller than to the Ludlum style. I suspect that after The Bourne Betrayal there will be so little of the Ludlum story line left that it will be like starting up a new thriller series.
The book's biggest weaknesses come in two areas: The technology employed is science fiction rather than being plausible and the characters are merely names that have an emotion or two attached to them.
The book's biggest strength comes in its realistic portrayal of how underground facilities might be stormed and subdued by small hostile forces. Whenever the book moves underground, the story brightens a bit.
For my taste the book could have been 200 pages shorter and it would have been more appealing. The extra length didn't do much to add either suspense or excitement to the story.
Unless you feel compelled to know everything possible about Jason Bourne, you could skip this book. Its impact on the character can be captured in a few short sentences in the next book in the series.
If you haven't read The Bourne Legacy, you'll probably like this book even less than I did.
If you decide to read this book, consider how appearances can be deceiving and how you can look past such false appearances to get at the inner truth.
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